After much consideration and debate by the Admin group I am pleased to announce an entirely new process as it relates to RFA contracts...Arbitration.
The primary reason for this change is to prevent some of the awkward situations we've had with QO and player holdouts on RFA that have passed through the FA process. It gives a strategic option that will attempt to mimic a very common NHL practice. It will be effective following the 2016-17 season so you've got the entire season to plan your contract extensions. Any current RFA holdouts on the prospect list that will be RFA age next offseason will be subject to this process if they receive a QO. Any UFA aged player or RFA that doesn't receive a QO will become a UFA next summer.
This may sound complicated but it's really quite simple. Following a breakdown of the changes I'll cover a real world example and have created an Excel template for you to be able to see what the potential impact would be for your own RFA's.
Here we go....
HFNHL RFA Re-Signing & Arbitration
RFA Re-Signing Process
RFA's may be signed in the following manners:
Arbitration Details
If an RFA aged player is not signed during the season, turns down their QO and does not get signed to a NHL matching contract or offer sheet on the open market they proceed to Arbitration. Arbitration will be a lottery type process with 4 possible outcomes. The first three outcomes are calculated based on the difference between the RFA's NHL cap hit and HFNHL QO ((NHL/HFNHL Difference * Arbitration %) + HFNHL QO). We'll call these "Team Wins". The final outcome is a straight % of the RFA's NHL cap hit. We'll call that the "Player Win". The potential outcomes are:
A toned down lottery will be held for all RFA's that enter Arbitration. Arbitration will not be held until a NHL salary is in place, which could mean our Arbitration process is delayed until a NHL deal is reached. Last resort will be using the Agents set value for the RFA in question.
Once a result is drawn teams have the following options:
If a RFA passes through the following season without being signed, and enters Arbitration again, the previous tier awarded is removed from the list of possible outcomes.
E.g. If any of the 30/50/80% tiers are awarded the first year only the three remaining tiers would be a possibility. The future Arbitration would be based on a new higher QO and slowly push the players salary closer to the NHL value even if a lower % is awarded in future years.
Eventually the 105% tier would be awarded which would see the player make a premium on their NHL cap hit. In subsequent seasons the Agents would likely be happy to accept the players new higher QO leading to a series of shorter term deals without Arbitration being needed again.
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Player Example
For this example we'll use Seth Jones and we'll assume I don't like his NHL contract so I make a QO that is rejected by the agents. During FA I'm still not willing to match his NHL deal (my only option at this point) and no team signs him to an offer sheet so he passes through without an offer and enters Arbitration.
The basis of his Arbitration case would be:
Check out the attached (also in the Dropbox folder) Excel file as a template to plug in your own player contracts.
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I expect there will be questions so fire away. Being a new process that's so different we will review it after the next couple offseasons to determine whether it's working or if we need to pull the plug.
The primary reason for this change is to prevent some of the awkward situations we've had with QO and player holdouts on RFA that have passed through the FA process. It gives a strategic option that will attempt to mimic a very common NHL practice. It will be effective following the 2016-17 season so you've got the entire season to plan your contract extensions. Any current RFA holdouts on the prospect list that will be RFA age next offseason will be subject to this process if they receive a QO. Any UFA aged player or RFA that doesn't receive a QO will become a UFA next summer.
This may sound complicated but it's really quite simple. Following a breakdown of the changes I'll cover a real world example and have created an Excel template for you to be able to see what the potential impact would be for your own RFA's.
Here we go....
HFNHL RFA Re-Signing & Arbitration
RFA Re-Signing Process
RFA's may be signed in the following manners:
- During season: Auto sign, negotiations with Agents or QO
- Offseason: Auto sign by rights holding team during open market (match NHL contract only), Offer Sheet by another team or *new* Arbitration *new*
Arbitration Details
If an RFA aged player is not signed during the season, turns down their QO and does not get signed to a NHL matching contract or offer sheet on the open market they proceed to Arbitration. Arbitration will be a lottery type process with 4 possible outcomes. The first three outcomes are calculated based on the difference between the RFA's NHL cap hit and HFNHL QO ((NHL/HFNHL Difference * Arbitration %) + HFNHL QO). We'll call these "Team Wins". The final outcome is a straight % of the RFA's NHL cap hit. We'll call that the "Player Win". The potential outcomes are:
- 75%*
- 90%*
- 110%*
- 120%*
A toned down lottery will be held for all RFA's that enter Arbitration. Arbitration will not be held until a NHL salary is in place, which could mean our Arbitration process is delayed until a NHL deal is reached. Last resort will be using the Agents set value for the RFA in question.
Once a result is drawn teams have the following options:
- Accept the 1 year Arbitration result
- Release the players rights
If a RFA passes through the following season without being signed, and enters Arbitration again, the previous tier awarded is removed from the list of possible outcomes.
E.g. If any of the 30/50/80% tiers are awarded the first year only the three remaining tiers would be a possibility. The future Arbitration would be based on a new higher QO and slowly push the players salary closer to the NHL value even if a lower % is awarded in future years.
Eventually the 105% tier would be awarded which would see the player make a premium on their NHL cap hit. In subsequent seasons the Agents would likely be happy to accept the players new higher QO leading to a series of shorter term deals without Arbitration being needed again.
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Player Example
For this example we'll use Seth Jones and we'll assume I don't like his NHL contract so I make a QO that is rejected by the agents. During FA I'm still not willing to match his NHL deal (my only option at this point) and no team signs him to an offer sheet so he passes through without an offer and enters Arbitration.
The basis of his Arbitration case would be:
- HFNHL QO: $1,017,500
- NHL Cap Hit: $5,400,000
- Difference: $4,382,500
- 30%: $2,332,250
- 50%: $3,208,750
- 80%: $4,523,500
- 105%: $5,670,000
Check out the attached (also in the Dropbox folder) Excel file as a template to plug in your own player contracts.
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I expect there will be questions so fire away. Being a new process that's so different we will review it after the next couple offseasons to determine whether it's working or if we need to pull the plug.
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